Gravano Ends Testimony After 9 Exhaustive Days

Salvatore Gravano finished his testimony against John Gotti yesterday, asserting that he became a Government witness and told the truth because of a desire to "turn my life around."

When a defense lawyer suggested that Mr. Gravano's real reason for cooperating with the Government was to obtain a lenient sentence and keep the money he accumulated in a life of crime, the witness replied, "That's not my major concern."

As Mr. Gravano left the witness stand, completing nine days of testimony as the star witness in the racketeering-murder trial in Federal District Court in Brooklyn, Mr. Gotti mockingly wiped imaginary tears from his eyes.

The stocky, stoic 47-year-old witness, one of the highest-ranking Mafia figures ever to turn informer, remained confidently composed throughout his long, arduous testimony, which included admitting his participation in 19 murders and implicating Mr. Gotti in 10 of them. Supervised '85 Killing

On the central charge in the trial, Mr. Gravano testified that he and Mr. Gotti supervised the slaying of Paul Castellano in 1985 and that Mr. Gotti then succeeded Mr. Castellano as the boss of the Gambino crime family. He added that he himself became a captain and later the underboss.

After five days of cross-examination, a prosecutor, John Gleeson, elicited in re-direct examination yesterday that Mr. Gravano was obligated to tell the truth under his plea agreement.

But the defense lawyers, Albert J. Krieger and Anthony M. Cardinale, suggested in additional cross-examination that the witness would do and say anything to avoid spending the rest of his life in prison.

"My major concern was to turn my life around," Mr. Gravano repeated in his soft, slightly hoarse voice. "Get away from what I was doing was my major concern."

"You're just looking for a new, a new version of Sam Gravano to be visited upon this world, a person who doesn't care about money, doesn't care about anything, just wants this new type of person to be seen by the world?" asked Mr. Krieger.

"I didn't say that I didn't care about money," Mr. Gravano responded. "I didn't say that I didn't care about the time. I said that's not my major concern and this is not why I signed this agreement."

Mr. Krieger noted that his plea agreement provides for a sentence of as much as 20 years in prison but can be "as little as probation" because of his cooperation.

The lawyer asked if he hoped that if he received any prison term at all, it would be less than 20 years.

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Stressing Mr. Gravano's aversion to jail, Mr. Cardinale asked him if he began planning ways to escape while he was being held in the Metropolitan Correctional Center before deciding to cooperate with the authorities last fall. Gravano's Assets

Asked how much money he now had in the bank, Mr. Gravano replied, "I would imagine a couple of hundred thousand." And from his income, he said, his wife had about $750,000 to $800,000 in real estate.

"Putting the two together," Mr. Krieger said, "we could approximate your holdings at a million dollars right now?"

"Yes, approximately," he answered. But he said he did not need assets because he could always earn a living in the construction industry, adding, "I could make a living and make a life for myself."

When a taped conversation was played, Mr. Gravano put on earphones to listen to the tape and eyeglasses to read the transcript. Mr. Gotti, who never puts on earphones in the trial, briefly peered through a pair of reading glasses to look at the transcript.

Mr. Cardinale, the lawyer for Mr. Gotti's co-defendant, Frank Locascio, played portions of the tape in which Mr. Gravano talked to the two defendants about a reputed mobster named Gaetano (Corky) Vastola. The prosecution played the tape earlier, contending it concerned plans to kill Mr. Vastola.

The lawyer was so certain the word "ain't" could be heard that he played the tape again, but Mr. Gravano stuck to the prosecution's version.

Noting that the prosecutors will decide if his testimony is truthful, Mr. Cardinale said, "And you know that in order to please your new masters, you will do anything you have to do, say anything you have to say, isn't that true?" Judge I. Leo Glasser sustained the prosecution's objection to the question.

The judge adjourned court for the day when a fire alarm, which turned out to be a false alarm, sounded in the courthouse shortly after the Gravano testimony ended in the late afternoon.

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A version of this article appears in print on March 14, 1992, on Page 1001029 of the National edition with the headline: Gravano Ends Testimony After 9 Exhaustive Days. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe